“We thought that the flat 2D animations would pop in Bangtel’s vibrant real-world settings,” says Chris. The approach also helped The Barkers to keep its crew lean, eliminating the need for food styling in the breakfast scene. “Once we had the idea, it was easy to create scenarios that covered a full range of personalities and situations,” Chris adds.

The Barkers worked with an illustrator to design the look of the 2D art added in post. Keeping things simple, the illustrations were designed to look like stickers you’d use in “Stories” on Instagram. “It only took us one day with an illustrator to dial in the look for the flat elements,” says Chris.

Scenes were shot over a three-day period, mixing the approaches. In the eggs and toast scene, for example, The Barkers created a practical green screen egg (and toast) that the talent interacted with so that the food would feel integrated into the environment. “The egg moves in the pan–it’s flat, but it slides onto the bread perfectly,” Chris explains. “That helped us anchor it in post-production more easily. For the other 2D scenes, we didn’t need talent to interact, so we just shot the scene and layered the 2D elements in post.”